USA Cricket’s status as national governing body still not secure ahead of Olympics
USA Cricket announced yesterday that it had reinstated two of the three directors—Mr. Kuljit Singh Nijjar and Mr. Arjun Gona—who were removed from its board in February 2024.
The two directors, along with Ms. Patricia Whittaker (the third removed director) and Mr. Atul Rai (a sitting director), had filed a lawsuit on March 3 against USA Cricket and six other sitting board members alleging that their removal was unconstitutional and part of broader corruption on the part of the board. Whittaker, however, has not been reinstated, prompting new accusations of bias and discrimination.
The removals came amid escalating tensions within the USA Cricket board, where multiple directors alleged that the leadership was manipulating constitutionally mandated elections and misusing board procedures to entrench power.
Despite the reinstatements, the lawsuit is proceeding, resulting in an ongoing situation where three sitting directors and one terminated director are suing six other sitting directors.
Statement from the reinstated directors: accusations of discrimination and unethical behavior
A few days after the formal reinstatement, which happened on April 5, the Dallas Cricket League (DCL)—representing the regional body affiliated with reinstated directors Nijjar and Gona—issued a strongly worded statement criticizing the Board’s selective reinstatement decision.
“USA Cricket Board reverses decision and reinstates unconstitutionally removed Board Members Kuljit-Singh Nijjar and Arjun Rao Gona”
The statement then condemned the decision to exclude Patricia Whittaker:
“In a striking move that further damages the credibility of USA Cricket, the Board has reinstated only two of the three wrongfully removed Board Members—Arjun Rao Gona and Kuljit-Singh Nijjar—while continuing to exclude Patricia Whittaker, despite all three being removed under the same purported allegations and subjected to identical unconstitutional procedures. This selective action not only reinforces concerns of discriminatory treatment, but also serves as undeniable proof of the unethical, undemocratic, and unlawful practices that have defined the Board’s leadership over the past year.”
Patricia Whittaker and her background
Whittaker, who is originally from Barbados, is a former international cricketer for the West Indies. She is an honorary life member of the Barbados Cricket Association, a practicing attorney in New York, and a former prosecutor and one of the first appointed independent directors on the USA Cricket board when it was reconstituted a few years back – after another round of legal strife.
Whittaker’s exclusion from readmission was described as a deliberate act of racial bias:
“Patricia Whittaker’s continued exclusion reflects not a procedural gap but a deliberate act of bias and institutional discrimination.”
The DCL statement condemned the treatment experienced by all three directors:
“Prior to their removal, all three of the board members suffered the indignity of being muted in Board meetings and their access to USAC’s email accounts was removed, stripped of their authority without due process. Yet only two have now been reinstated and that too without explanation, transparency, or retroactive recognition of their Board tenure.”
It also connected the reinstatement to the ongoing lawsuit and the need to continue it:
“This decision, taken only after mounting legal pressure, validates the lawsuit brought forward by three Board Members, later joined by a fourth board member Atul Rai, to remove six current directors accused of misusing the organization for personal agendas and to restore all wrongfully removed board members.”
“The Board’s ongoing failure to uphold fairness, legality, and ethical standards confirms the very governance crisis the legal challenge seeks to address. Ms. Whittaker’s exclusion is not only unjust, but also a clear example of the systemic failure at the heart of USA Cricket.”
USA Cricket’s official statement: reforms and reinstatement
On Tuesday, five days after the DCL’s announcement, USA Cricket issued its own press release, portraying the reinstatements as part of broader governance reforms.
The official release stated:
“USA Cricket has announced a series of governance updates following its April 5, 2025, Board of Directors meeting, reinforcing the organization’s continued commitment to transparency and operational integrity. These steps include the reinstatement of former Board Directors, Mr. Kuljit Singh Nijjar and Mr. Arjun Gona, based on their status as member-elected directors, along with additional governance amendments. The Board voted unanimously to reinstate both directors following their removal in December 2024.”
Board Chair Venu Pisike added:
“Reinstating Kuljit and Arjun and implementing these governance enhancements reflect our unified commitment to operational excellence and organizational accountability.”
In addition, the release noted two additional steps to be taken:
- “Appointment of an independent observer for Board meetings” — though the statement was unclear whether the non-voting ‘independent observer’ would be a replacement for Whittaker as an independent director, and
- “mandatory training for all Board members” — though the statement did not specify specifically what the training is for.
Ongoing racial discrimination lawsuit by Kirk Greaves
In addition to the current allegations of discrimination related to the failure to reinstate Whittaker, USA Cricket continues to face another pending lawsuit related to racial discrimination.
Filed in April 2022, the case was brought by Kirk Greaves, a former independent contractor brought on by USA Cricket as a Cricket Operations Manager and, like Whittaker, also a native of Barbados.
According to ESPNcricinfo’s reporting at the time, Greaves was terminated from an independent-contractor role earlier that month, filed legal action in the US Federal Court against the national governing body claiming “racial discrimination in employment”.
Greaves sought $2 million dollars in damages, including for “psychological stress and humiliation” amid what he described as a “toxic work environment, unfair employment practices, wage disparity and discrimination.”
Greaves’ lawsuit is still in proceeding.
Background: USA Cricket’s warning from the USOPC and ICC warning about losing status
The origins of this current conflict go back to March 2024, when only months after the LA Olympic Committee and the IOC confirmed cricket’s inclusion in the 2028 LA Olympics, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) issued a stern warning and rebuke of USAC in a letter to Pisike, putting it on notice that its aspiration of being recognized as the National Governing Body for the sport of cricket was in jeopardy.
The ICC then sent a similar warning message to USAC later that month, and in July 2024 formally put USA Cricket on notice. In the words of then-CEO Geoff Allardice:
“USOPC have stated if USAC do not achieve NGB certification, they will be required to commence a process to recognise an alternate NGB for cricket, which could put USAC in breach of ICC Membership Criteria to be “recognized by the ICC (at its absolute discretion) as the primary governing body responsible for the administration, management and development of cricket (men’s and women’s) in its country.”
In July 2024, the four plaintiffs in the current lawsuit—Whittaker, Nijjar, Gona, and Rai—submitted a formal letter to the ICC, detailing a series of allegations against USAC. The letter accused USAC’s leadership, specifically board members Anj Balusu, David Haubert, Pintoo Shah, Nadia Gruny, Venu Pisike, and Srini Salver, of financial mismanagement, ethical and conflict of interest violations, and harassment of board members who attempted to uphold transparency. The directors also alleged that USA Cricket’s leadership had engaged in election fraud and engineering.
The ICC was urged to intervene, with the directors expressing fears that USAC was failing in its fiduciary responsibilities. However, instead of initiating corrective measures, USAC leadership allegedly retaliated against these whistleblowers by removing them from the board and initiating elections to replace them.
LA Olympics approach, USA Cricket’s legitimacy hangs in the balance
USA Cricket is still not recognized by the USOPC as the official national governing body for cricket in the United States. The USOPC has made clear that USA Cricket did not meet its criteria in 2024, and the developments of the past week seem to make compliance even less likely. And as Allardice made clear last summer, the ICC’s position is that if USA Cricket does not achieve that recognition, it would be in breach of ICC’s Membership Criteria and presumably lose its ICC status as well.
Now, with three sitting directors suing the rest of the organization, USA Cricket’s dysfunction appears to be deepening.
The continued legal turmoil will be monitored closely by the USOPC, the ICC, and the US and global cricket communities to determine whether USA Cricket is capable of leading cricket in the country through this high profile time.
